16 Florida Companies Make Top 1,000 List

April 14, 1989|By Oscar Suris of The Sentinel Staff

Companies based in Florida fared only slightly better than in past years in the 1989 ranking of the top 1,000 U.S. companies by Business Week magazine, increasing their presence to 16 companies, according to the annual list released Thursday.

The magazine, which ranks companies by market value, said the number of Florida companies on the list increased by one from last year. Two companies were added, and one was dropped.

Koger Properties Inc., a real estate development company based in Jacksonville, made its debut at No. 645 with a market value of $694 million. Blockbuster Entertainment Corp., the video-store chain based in Fort Lauderdale, made its first appearance with a 697 ranking and a market value of $620 million.

Two Central Florida companies made the top 1,000. Harris Corp., a high-tech communications company based in Melbourne, was ranked 474, with a market value of $1.079 billion. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc., a publishing company based in Orlando, was ranked 714, with a market value of $598 million.

The top five on the list were International Business Machines Corp., $66.346 billion; Exxon Corp., $59.023 billion; General Electric Co., $40.482 billion; American Telephone & Telegraph Co., $34.357 billion; and Philip Morris Cos. Inc., $26.992 billion.

Business Week based the values on the price of a share of a company's common stock on March 17 times its number of shares outstanding.

The top three Florida companies in the Business Week ranking are based in South Florida, including FPL Group Inc. in North Palm Beach, which ranked 149 - the highest of the Florida companies - and had a market value of $3.85 billion. Knight-Ridder Inc. had a 246 ranking and a market value of $2.33 billion. Knight-Ridder, based in Miami, is a media company that owns TV stations and newspapers.

Ryder System Inc., a Miami-based company that rents leases transportation services, ranked 279 with a value of $2 billion.